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Trump says he’ll punish ‘the people of Canada’ because of Trudeau’s news conference

WASHINGTON and OTTAWA—Escalating his attack on Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, U.S. President Donald Trump is now pledging to punish “the people of Canada” economically because of the post-G7 news conference in which Trudeau criticized Trump’s tariffs.

“That’s going to cost a lot of money for the people of Canada. He learned. You can’t do that. You can’t do that,” Trump said Tuesday in Singapore after meeting with North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un.

“I actually like Justin, you know, I think he’s good, I like him, but he shouldn’t have done that. That was a mistake. That’s going to cost him a lot of money,” Trump said.

Trudeau responded to the barb with restraint.

“Obviously we support the continuing efforts by the president on North Korea. We look forward to looking at the details of the agreement. On his comments, as I said, I’m going to stay focused on defending jobs for Canadians and supporting Canadian interests,” Trudeau said on his way into Tuesday morning’s cabinet meeting.

This is the first time Trump has issued any kind of declaration about hurting the Canadian people. It was not at all clear what he meant.

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Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland said Tuesday that the government is “prepared for any eventuality” on the possibility of auto tariffs, and that she and Trudeau raised the issue with Trump and other American officials during last weekend’s G7 summit in Quebec. She pointed to Canada’s planned response to the steel and aluminum tariffs — retaliatory duties on a range of U.S. imports worth more than $16 billion — as evidence the government is prepared to be “absolutely resolute” in defending the national interest.

“From day one, we have said that we expected moments of drama and that we would… keep calm and carry on throughout those moments of drama,” Freeland said.

Trudeau has so far refused to engage with Trump's comments about him. (The Canadian Press)

It is not clear why Trump reacted to Trudeau’s post-G7 news conference with such anger. Trudeau expressed the same criticism of Trump’s tariffs, and the same promise to stand up for Canadians, he had been offering for a full week. He and his ministers have described the tariffs as an insult given they are officially being imposed on “national security” grounds.

“It would be with regret but it would be with absolute certainty and firmness that we move forward with retaliatory measures on July 1st, applying equivalent tariffs to the ones that the Americans have unjustly applied to us,” Trudeau said.

“I have made it very clear to the president that it is not something we relish doing, but it is something that we absolutely will do, because Canadians: we’re polite, we’re reasonable, but we also will not be pushed around.”

Trump’s top economic adviser Larry Kudlow and trade adviser Peter Navarro hurled insults at Trudeau on CNN and Fox News programs the following day — claiming the prime minister went “rogue,” calling his news conference “sophomoric” and a backstabbing “betrayal,” and saying there is a “special place in hell” for him. Kudlow explained that the administration was reacting so strongly because Trump could not show “weakness” to Kim in advance of the summit.

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Navarro apologized on Tuesday, saying at a Washington conference that he made a “mistake” by using “language that was inappropriate” while attempting to “send a very strong signal of strength.”

François-Philippe Champagne, Canada’s international trade minister, brushed off Navarro’s comments and said Canada would continue pushing to modernize NAFTA.

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“In diplomacy, it doesn’t really matter about personal feelings and personal comments,” he said. “We’ll continue to do diplomacy the Canadian way, which is to be positive, to be constructive and to make sure we are firm to defend our industries and our workers.”

Trump said Tuesday that he was miffed that Trudeau was criticizing him so soon after G7 exchanges he described as friendly. He omitted any mention of his own post-G7 news conference, in which he criticized Canada and the other allies over trade.

“And he’s giving a news conference about how he will not be pushed around by the United States. And I say, push him around? We just shook hands. It was very friendly,” Trump said.

Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says he told U.S. President Donald Trump at the G7 summit that U.S. tariffs on Canadian steel and aluminum are “insulting,” and Canadians don’t “take it lightly.” (The Canadian Press)

Trump claimed Trudeau made his comments because he thought Trump could not watch them while flying to Singapore.

“I think that Justin probably didn’t know that Air Force One has about 20 televisions,” he said.

Trump’s criticism of Trudeau stood in stark contrast to his effusive praise of Kim. He called the North Korean dictator “very talented,” “very smart” and “a great personality” who “loves his people.”

“We have developed a very special bond,” Trump said of Kim.

In Ottawa, NDP Leader Jagmeet Singh said Canadian politicians need to stand together against Trump’s “bullying tactics,” and that the government must focus on how to protect workers who could lose their jobs because of the punitive tariffs between the North American allies.

“There are some real dangers, and again, whenever trade wars happen, it’s workers that are impacted,” he said. “(Employment Insurance) is not going to be enough. We need to look at additional supports, and what those are, we need to reflect on.”

Later, during Question Period, Trudeau thanked the opposition for standing together in the face of U.S. protectionism.

“When the moment is right, we all stand together firmly to support Canadians, across party lines, across the country,” Trudeau said, adding in a subsequent response that tariffs will do damage on both sides of the border.

“This is not in the interest of two countries that have the closest and best trading relationship and alliance in the history of the world. We’re going to continue to stand for that,” he said.

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